In The Trashcan Records
GARBAGE28
"95% or
even more of the records sold over all those years are sung in English. Why?
Here you get Italian, German, Spanish, Flemish & Dutch, and of course again
some French songs to prove that bad taste doesn't always have to be
(American) English. Let's protest against their supremacy and do like they
did in the 60s: sing all the hits in your own language and be surprised how
tasteless the lyrics often are..."
In 1964 a Disney movie conquered the world: Mary Poppins. And all over the world everybody tried to say “supercalifragilisticespiralidocious”. Well known Italian Rita translated these difficult lyrics into Italian and something amazing happened: this song turned into a great dance tune.
A Spanish combo singing about Flamenco (which means Flemish in Spanish). It starts with a Mariachi guitar picking and then it turns into a Spanish beat tune and to me this song will always remain the best Los Brincos ever released (and they have released a lot of 45s!). When was it released? In 1966? Possible.
Mix tango and other latin sounds with a high school rock ‘n’ roll flavour and you’ll get the picture. In the second half of the 50s Marino was very popular in Italy and recorded dozens of EP’s on the now legendary Durium label.
Ferre Grignard, an Antwerp (Belgium) protest singer from the mid60s had a world wide smash hit with “Ring ring I’ve got to sing”. He had a junior version hanging around him all the time: the 16 year old Fabien Collin who joined him on stage on several tours around Belgium and Holland in 1967. A Flemish juvenile version of Bob Dylan.
To me he resembles an Napolitan barber I once saw in an old 50s romantic teen movie recorded in the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius. He was a very skillful guitar player.
Don’t ever try to keep youngsters out of pubs and certainly don’t try to make them leave before 6am! In Ostend (at the Belgian North Sea coast) the mayor tried to do it and this was the result: in 1960 The Seabirds released even a 45 to protest against this evil attempt to stop rock ‘n’ roll. And this was sung in Dutch.
And this he proves in this song about “vocals and guitar”. The Mediterranean sea breeze is everpresent. As with many Italian singers he was also popular in France, hence this French release on Vogue.
And surprise, surprise: “Protest rock” was also translated into French as “Nous protestons” with the same adolescents called The Seabirds.
A Dutch version of “Simon says”, yes the bubblegum classic with great new lyrics about Simon whose young wife is cheating on him and he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s losing her and also his grocery shop, just because he loves her so much. Ronnie had several small hits in Holland.
Another Belgian entry : Gilles and Dominique released at least three 45s in the 60s. It’s from a very rare EP. A solid psych beat mixed with some horns.
Sacha Distel (from France) had a big hit in 1966 with “Monsieur Cannibal”, a song still used in an amusement park called “De Efteling”. Andy Fisher translated this singalong tune into German AND English. Both languages can be heard here.
This French combo released several instrumental EP’s but also recorded some vocal tracks including this French version of The Rivingtons’ classic tune. I’ve got more French versions of this song, but this is definitely the best.
A great lurid latin dance tune about “Marihuana, no hash”. I have no idea about the year of release, but I assume it was around 1960. Getting high in Rio!
I’m not sure about this one, but he might have been a Belgian singer. It’s samba time with “La marmite”.
One hit wonder “Little” Peggy March had some more minor hits in Germany. Was this also a hit in Schlagerland? Don’t know. It would be weird if this hasn’t been released on a compilation yet. Anyway, it’s a fantastic and fast beat tune sung in German.
Bobbejaan Schoepen was a very famous Flemish singer who sang in Dutch, German and English and was a big fan of western and cowboy lifestyle and also liked native Indians. In the 70s he started his own amusement park called Bobbejaanland which still exists. The (Belgian) Cousins had a major hit with “Kili Watch”. Bobbejaan translated this song into German and got away with it. This must have been recorded around 1961.
